As contractors worried about technical problems with the Atlas, Once again NASA, faced the necessity for a quick recovery plan when a target vehicle failed to reach orbit. You may recall the first time was with Gemini 6. But this time Nasa had something in the hangar, an alternate vehicle – the Augment Target Docking Adapter also known as the ATDA…

After the untimely deaths of Elliot See and Charles Basset, NASA assigned the Gemini IX prime crew positions to Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan. This was the first time in NASA’s manned space flight history that a backup crew had taken over a mission. The capsule was renamed Gemini IX-A…